Daylight
by Duck Life
Summary: Sequel to Breaking Dawn. With a new threat on the horizon, the Cullens rely on experience to help them. However, new beginnings mean that none of them know what the future might hold. Please R&R!
1. Preface

This was it. There was nothing more we could do. Time and time again, we'd embraced battle with hope and determination, always coming out on the better end, always feeling successful, and at the least a bit shaken. Not this time.

Standing on this field, staring into the dark woods, it was impossible not to feel déjà vu. How many times had this very place been the setting for my most terrifying experiences. It was the setting for countless nightmares I'd had in my last months as a human. However, the déjà vu lacked a certain quality. In all of those other times, something in me had hoped, even suspected that I would come out alive, and even more importantly, that Edward would. This, in all of those cases, was wishful thinking in a hopeless situation. Still, I had always known that there was a _possibility _that we might win. The slightest chance, of course, but always a possibility. There was no such possibility now. I could not even hope. This was the end.

Horrified, we stared into the trees, waiting to die.


	2. Beginning

It was early evening, and Edward and I had receded to our little cottage, followed by Renesmee, riding haughtily atop Jacob's broad shoulders. For once, she looked like a toddler, smug and superior, the way a spoiled little one-year old girl should look. It was difficult to forget the truth, though, especially when she called out to me as we reached the cottage, with perfect articulation, "Momma, may we go hunting this weekend? Jacob has wanted to run with the pack for days, and I've been feeling thirsty." Edward bristled a bit, still edgy about her unusual mental capacity, even after a year. In contrast, it felt perfectly normal to me- perhaps because she was really the first young child I had ever come in contact with, whereas Edward, as he'd told me a few weeks ago, had once had a baby sister.

We'd kept Renesmee up much too late, and she'd been insisting to stay awake. "I am not tired," she announced as we tucked her in. "I will not go to sleep."

"You'll get bored," I replied, sweeping her hair from underneath her neck and spreading it out on the pillow.

"I will not," she persisted, "I'll just read a book."

"In the dark?" I inquired slyly wile Edward smiled form the doorway.

"My eyesight is exceptional," she retorted, pushing the covers back and standing up.

"Sweetie, please go to sleep," I pleaded, lifting her back into her bed.

"But I don't _want _to," she insisted, resorting to her childish stubbornness. Edward stepped in at that point.

"Nessie, dear, would you like me to sing you a lullaby?" Renesmee faltered in her refusal- she loved listening to her father sing, as did I. Crinkling her brow, as she did when she was thinking, she looked back and forth between us, deciding.

"Okay," she answered uneasily after a while, looking expectantly at Edward.

"You have to get into bed," he told her. Obediently, Renesmee slipped under her blankets and turned towards my husband. Edward placed a pale hand on her shoulder and began to slowly rock her back and forth, tilting her towards him and away from him rhythmically. Then, his velvet voice began painting a picture.

I was surprised. I had expected my lullaby, the only one I'd ever heard him sing to her. Apparently, she'd been expecting that, too, because her eyes widened with curiosity as he sang.

"_The sun is setting, dear, tired and relaxing. The moon is sleeping in the sky, the mountains are resting, darling. Sleep, sleep, for the world and the stars. Sleep, sleep, like the grass in the field, dance tomorrow, but slumber now. Darling, sleep, the world is tired, sleep and awake to the world. Sleep, dear, sleep for the world._"

Renesmee's eyelids drooped down, and she rolled over, yawning and snuggling under the covers. Edward smiled serenely at her before standing. "Goodnight, Renesmee," he whispered, just a breeze whistled through his lips. I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to disturb my daughter, knowing I would shout if I spoke now. I followed Edward to the family room, and he leaned against his piano bench, staring out the window thoughtfully.

"That was beautiful," I gasped in awe. He looked at me, smiling. I was shaking my head, going over his amazing voice in my head. He didn't often sing, he preferred to hum quietly to himself, which I disagreed with. He had the most beautiful voice, and he hardly ever serenaded us with it.

"I thought you might like it," he murmured. "I wrote it years ago- when I was still human." I gaped at him, watching him stare off in the distance, remembering a time many lifetimes ago. "It was for my sister." His eyes were troubled now, and his words confused me.

"I thought you were an only child," I replied, perplexed. He turned to me, his countenance full of sorrow.

"I _was _an only child… at the time Carlisle found me." He was frowning, thinking, I was sure, of the dank Chicago streets in the early twentieth century."She was very young, and she died of the Spanish influenza long before the rest of my family did." This was startling news. He'd never told me anything of his family, always saying that his human memories were muddled and faint. However, he must have clung to his lost sister for almost a century.

"Edward…" I trailed off, sorry that I'd reminded him of the sister I'd never known he had.

"Don't be sorry," he said dreamily. "She went without pain. She was young, and never had a chance to discover the evil in the world. Besides…" He got up and walked towards me crouching at the arm of the chair I sat in, tracing my face with his slender finger. "I've always believed that if any of the events in my life had been the slightest bit different, I would never have met you." He shuddered. "And I would never wish for a life without knowing you."

I turned back to Renesmee, who had cocked her head in expectation. "We'll go hunting this weekend," I promised cheerfully, and Edward smiled.

"Goat Rocks?" he asked hopefully.

"Fine," I huffed. Renesmee and Jacob cheered from behind me. I had really wanted to stay close to home this weekend, but, unfortunately, I was outnumbered.

"Think about it this way," murmured Edward as he draped his arm around my shoulders, "You won't have to go shopping with Alice." I laughed, pecking him on the cheek and swinging the door more widely open as Jacob swung Renesmee towards the house.

That night, after Renesmee was asleep and Jacob had sprinted home, Edward and I were sitting outside in our garden. The moon was just visible in the gray sky. "It's twilight," muttered Edward morosely, probably intentionally trying to remind me of our first weeks together. I smiled.

"Think of it this way," I said. "It's a beginning- a beginning of the night."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Okay, I have unanimously decided that, as I have 67 unfinished stories, I'm going to have to drop some. Some stories I simply begin and then lose interest in them. I apologize, but it doesn't seem fair to leave people waiting for over a year for the next chapter. Because of this, this story is now cancelled unless adopted by another author. If you are interested in adopting this story, please review and let me know!**

**Again, I'm sorry and I hope that you will continue to read my other stories. **


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